TINUBU TAX REFORM
The CDWR holds public symposium and calls on workers to organize actions to reject the bills and fight for a political alternative.
By Davy Fidel
On Tuesday 11 March 2025, the Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights (CDWR) organized a public symposium to discuss the implications of President Bola Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills currently before the National Assembly for working people and the poor. The theme of the symposium is: “Tinubu Tax Reform: Any Benefit for Working People and the Poor?’’
One of the objectives of the symposium is to use the gathering to call on workers in the trade unions to mount pressure on their leadership to mobilize for actions against the bills and other anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist policies.
In attendance, both physically and virtually, were about 60 people from trade unions and civil society organisations. These include the representatives of the Lagos councils of the two labour centres, Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress. Some individual industrial unions – affiliated to either the NLC or TUC – were also represented. They included Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (ASBIFIE), Cab Operators Union, Lagos State Council of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Lagos State Council of National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Precision Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA), National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) and Lagos State Welders Association. The left and civil society organisations in attendance were Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), Centre for Popular Education (CEPED), MEKUNU-KOYA, Joint Action Front (JAF), ACTIVISTA, Movement for African Emancipation (MAE) and Socialist Vanguard Tendency (SVT).
The speakers at the event were Lanre Akinola, a chartered account and NEC member of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and Dr Dele Ashiru, National Convenor, ASUU Committee on Students and Civil Society Organizations. Other speakers were Abiodun Aladetan, Lagos State Secretary, Trade Union Congress and Bisi Idowu Vice Chair, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Lagos State Council.
Rufus Olusesan, National President of PERESSA and also the national chair of the CDWR, moderated the symposium. He introduced the theme and highlighted the ills behind the tax reforms and why workers must begin to unite themselves via the trade unions so they can challenge the bills. In his introduction, he said. “’this public symposium is to discuss the bill and how workers can engage it before it becomes a law.”
He added that the cost of living and inflation has devalued the new minimum wage of N70, 000 the Tinubu presidency is boasting they have enacted to ease the suffering of workers. Stressing the consequences of the tax reform bills, Rufus also emphasized that workers must not trust the government or fall behind the propaganda that workers under the N70, 000 will be exempted. He said, “It will be a self-harm for any worker to agree with such propaganda.”
He further stressed the fact that this government of Tinubu does not serve the interest of workers and the poor working people. Rather, the ruling elites defending the neo-liberal policies of the IMF and World Bank only understand how they will continue to use them to stiffen the life of the oppressed Nigerians.
Lanre Akinola, a tax expert, who was the lead speaker elaborated the issues around the tax reform bills, and why the reform doesn’t serve the interest of the working people and why workers must protest against it.
He used the example of the privatization of the power sector, which has proved to be a monumental failure and fraud contrary to what the government made the ordinary people to believe before it was carried out, as a reminder to the working people not fall for lies and deceit of the government that the tax reform will benefit ordinary workers and the poor. He explained that why it is true that in the bill anybody earning N800,000 and below is exempt, they will be made to pay much more through VAT and other anti-poor policies like increment in school fees in addition to the existing impacts of the devaluation of the Naira and removal of the fuel subsidy. Besides, he further explained, a few workers in the public sector would really benefit from tax relief put in the bills.
In the course of his speech, Lanre also explained the damage that tax reform will do to public education, health, social services, and all other aspects of life for the working people in Nigeria. For instance, he said that if the bills become laws school fees in public tertiary universities will be so astronomical and children from working class homes won’t be able to access public university education. This is because one of the plans of the bill is to scrap Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) which largely accounts for the provision of infrastructures and facilities in the tertiary institutions. In his words, “If TETFund began to withdraw their funds from public tertiary institutions, it will mean school fees may triple and many students will drop out of the university because their parents won’t be able to pay their school fees.”
He further explained how the government of Tinubu plans to use VAT to further compound the suffering of working people and the poor, struggling to cope with the current social economic hardship. He warned that workers shouldn’t dance behind any section of the capitalist ruling elite, playing up ethnic and regional card over the sharing formula. Rather, they should unite in their strength to oppose the bill and fight for improved living conditions.
On his part, Abiodun Aladetan – the State Secretary, TUC Lagos –shared his personal ordeal of the electricity tariff and the exorbitant bill of N35 million, the estate he resides received. He was firm in his words when he said “the privatization of the power sector has failed and it is not working.” On the tax reform bill, he stated that the position of the TUC includes the rejection of the planned hike in VAT and demand for an increase in the tax minimum threshold from N800,000 to N2.5m. He added that state leadership is making an effort to educate workers about the danger inherent in the tax bills. However, just like the NLC, whose representative also spoke, there is no a program of action by the TUC to defeat the bills or enforce their own demands.
Dr. Dele Ashiru started by going on historical lane, stating that the current attacks of the Tinubu government on workers and the poor is a continuation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that was introduced by the military dictator Ibrahim Babangida in mid-1980’s in line with the dictates of the IMF and World Bank. On TETFund, he recalled how the struggle of ASUU over university funding led to the establishment of the Fund. According to him, while ASUU has some questions over the democratic management and accountability of the Fund, it is vehemently opposed to its scrapping. He added that the tax reform in general is a summary of the government shifting the burden over to the working people and relieving the super-rich from paying fair taxes. The state, he said, has failed to uphold its responsibility and it is hiding under a fraudulent saying that the state doesn’t have business in business. To him, “free quality education is possible and it is the state that must fund it.’’
A new pamphlet produced by the CDWR and titled “Tinubu’s Tax Reform Will Compound Economic Crises”’, was presented at the symposium by Chinedu Bosah, Publicity Secretary of the CDWR and a leading member of the DSM. He spoke briefly on the bill and why workers in the trade unions must not be quiet. He argued that the tax reform bill can be used to steer a national campaign and mobilise for mass actions against the government and its anti-poor policies. However, the trade unions must be willing to be active in the campaign and drive the campaign in conjunction with civil society groups.
Copies of the pamphlet were shared to the unions and civil society organisations in attendance, and an open appeal was made to the unions for donation towards producing more copies for wider circulation among workers and other subsequent material necessary for a struggle against the tax reform. The pamphlet will be updated with new details after the bills are passed into law.
The contributors to the discussion from the audience were all critical of the lack of seriousness on the part of the national leadership of both the NLC and TUC. Therefore, they urged the labour leaders to begin mass mobilization of the working people and work with the civil society to build national actions in order to defeat the anti-poor provisions of the bills before they become laws.
It was also stressed that the struggle against the tax reform must be linked with the struggle against the entire anti-poor capitalist policies and the need for a mass working political alternative with a socialist program.
The pamphlet states in part, ‘”Under capitalism, the rule of engagement is to subject the working class and the poor masses into exploitative slavery. It is the organization of the working classes such as the trade unions that should resist exploitation and organize to eventually defeat capitalism.”
Solidarity songs were chanted to bring the symposium that lasted for over 4 hours to an end. But before then the DSM comrades had sold 26 copies of Socialist Democracy – the paper of the organization.
CDWR email: [email protected]